Jon Bailey

July 15, 1993 | BENJAMIN EPSTEIN, Benjamin Epstein is a free-lance writer who regularly contributes to The Times Orange County Edition

When people think of the transforming power of AIDS, they think primarily of the transformation from life to death. But Jon Bailey, artistic director of the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles, says AIDS can transform in other ways as well. For starters, it can transform the meanings of songs. Take the Stephen Sondheim song "Being Alive." "That's a real plea," said Bailey, whose group brings a program titled "Sondheim!" to the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Saturday.

Operatic concerts can be stodgy, stand-and-sing affairs, numerous excerpts parading by, with long stage waits and endless entrances and exits. * Not so the "Opera Our Way!" event performed Sunday afternoon by the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles at its return to the Irvine Barclay Theatre. Not all the singing and playing was polished--some of it was actually clunky and amateurish--but pacing, visuals and continuity displayed a high standard of careful and astute planning.

Organized rather differently, "With a Mighty Voice"--the program offered by the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles on Saturday at First Congregational Church in Long Beach--could have formed a fairly conventional choral sampler. As it was, the abrupt deflections in spirit and style formed their own pattern of tension and release, and left no doubt that singing itself was both medium and message.

William Hall and the Master Chorale of Orange County opened their 39th season Saturday with a program intended to offer consolation and support to families and friends of those who have fallen to AIDS.

A lot of music has come out of the AIDS crisis, says Jon Bailey, conductor and artistic director of the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles. The problem with much of that music, Bailey says, is that "it's in the nature of a Requiem--it's not hopeful, and it's very self-involved."

When Depeche Mode targets its Southland stronghold, it's feeding-frenzy time for one of the most tenaciously loyal audiences in rock. On its first tour in five years, the English band logs four area arena concerts--all sellouts. * Depeche Mode, with Stabbing Westward, Friday and Saturday at the Great Western Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood, 8 p.m. Sold out. (310) 419-3100. Also Sunday and Tuesday at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim, 8 p.m. Sold out.

The various Gay Men's choruses around America offer a happy and necessary reminder of how disparate voices can become one. The singers are not typically professional, not likely to be individually distinguished. But the polished result they often produce make these musical societies one of the last important links to a once glorious amateur tradition in music, a tradition of music in service of community.

When the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles set out two weeks ago on a five-city tour of Europe, the 80-member ensemble didn't know how they would be received in cities where homosexuality is either suppressed or the gay movement is in its infancy. But the historic tour by a gay American musical organization--with Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague and Vienna concluded successfully--has exceeded expectations, said artistic director Jon Bailey on Thursday.